As always, his innings was a highlight reel of extraordinary strokes all round the park. Scoring came as naturally to him as swimming to a fish; he did it without effort, it seemed, and more quickly than almost everyone else. He was not easily perturbed: dropped on one occasion, and beaten on a few others, he responded, almost every time by stroking the following delivery to the boundary.

I am referring, of course, to Shikar Dhawan's hundred during the third and final game in the One Day International series against the West Indies in Kanpur. His 113 came off just 95 deliveries and he cajoled, swatted and stroked 20 balls to the boundary. This made it five ODI centuries for the year and puts him third on the list of most ODI runs scored for 2013, behind teammates Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

In 23 ODI innings this year Dhawan has gathered 1150 runs at a sizeable 54.76 average and at the staggering strike-rate of 98.12. In particular, he was unstoppable in the ICC Champions Trophy in England, striking two centuries and averaging 90.75 at a 101.39 strike-rate -- a performance that landed him the Player of the Tournament award.

The Delhi left-hander strode on to the international cricket scene in 2013 like a gunslinger with all guns blazing, and has not been minded to holster his weapons since. Like the Aussies, who could find no way to contain him, those who saw his Test debut innings of 187 must have been absolutely flabbergasted by the quality and audacity of his strokeplay. Others like Lawrence Rowe (214), Matthew Sinclair (214) and Jacques Rudolph (222*) had bigger debut innings; none would have played with the kind of aplomb that Dhawan did.

You were tempted to wonder why he had been hiding for so long. He was already 27-years-old and his first-class career began in 2004. Surely they had to know that he was something special. In fairness, however, he did little in the five ODIs that he played prior to his Test debut, and India had a strong batting unit that was difficult for a newcomer to penetrate. But Dhawan so overwhelmed the opposition on his first Test appearance that the selectors might have regretted, in retrospect, not having found a spot for him earlier.

Dhawan has exceeded the expectations of even his most optimistic supporters. The numbers he has racked up, and the fearless and attractive manner in which he approaches the run-scoring business, has delighted a large and growing fan base that is now looking to one of cricket's great entertainers to continue in much the same vein that he has began.

In hailing the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar's 24-year international career, former England captain Michael Atherton remarked that the game gets more difficult the longer you play. That observation might seem counter-intuitive for the more you perform an act the easier it's supposed to become. But all players, save the superhuman Bradman perhaps, suffer downturns in form as they unconsciously allow bad habits to creep in and alter their technique. Opponents will also probe for weaknesses and concoct plans to exploit them, and batsmen who enter the game as free and fearless players sometimes find their minds becoming cluttered and wracked with doubt.

Efforts to stay ahead of the game are constant and some find it necessary, from time to time, to tinker with their methods. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, for example, the West Indies batting great, began his career with a perfectly orthodox batting stance, but nowadays he lines up, as I remember one commentator remarking, as if he were about to take strike from the square leg umpire -a method, he offers, that improves his balance.

Dhawan recognizes, I'm sure, that it will not be smooth sailing all the way. He knows, I'm sure that he will meet challenges that will seriously test not only his batting skills but also his mental well-being. And the way he handles this kind of pressure will determine the trajectory of his career.

One difficult test, which might turn out to be his sternest to that point, should come on the upcoming tour to South Africa. The game's top ranked Test team is in possession of the most demanding pace attack in the world. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, operating on their lively home surfaces, can be a very disruptive force on any batting entity in world cricket.

Steyn's maliciously late away swing with the new ball can dismiss any batsman at any time. And if you manage to survive that then you have to deal with Morkel's steep bounce and Philander's unyielding accuracy. Pass that stiff examination of the world's best fast attack in some of the world's most amenable conditions for high velocity bowling and you know you have what it takes to succeed anywhere -- especially if you are a batsman brought up in a spin-friendly environment.

It has been accepted cricket wisdom that the way to subjugate subcontinent batsmen is to confront them with short-pitched bowling on spicy surfaces. The work of batsmen like VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar have gone some way into dispelling that impression but that feeling still lingers somewhat, and as a method of attack it will undoubtedly be tried, especially since India's new brigade of young batsmen are untested against that kind of assault.

You can never tell in sport but there is nothing to suggest that bowling of high pace and sharp bounce will overly trouble the Indian opener. Dhawan appears quite capable on the back-foot and shows a high degree of comfort when executing cross-batted shots. He may have to reign in his attacking instincts marginally, but that should cause him no bother -- chances are he'll still score at a more than adequate rate.

If Dhawan has a successful South African tour then those who have reserved judgment, waiting to see how he adapts to high-bouncing pitches, will have to accept that the opener is now one of the world's best batmen. It could be difficult replicating the extraordinary level success he has had since his Test debut in March. But if he manages, for the most part, to bat as he has done to this point in his international career, he could well be numbered amongst the greats.